[mapguide-trac] #561: Support for Symbol libraries

[MapGuide Open Source]

#561: Support for Symbol libraries
-------------------------+--------------------------------------------------
 Reporter:  ksgeograf    |         Owner:  ksgeograf
     Type:  enhancement  |        Status:  assigned 
 Priority:  medium       |     Milestone:           
Component:  Maestro      |       Version:           
 Severity:  major        |    Resolution:           
 Keywords:               |   External_id:           
-------------------------+--------------------------------------------------
Comment (by ksgeograf):

 The symbol libraries are implemented in a slightly complicated way.
 Instead of merely adding images to the resource, in form of resource data,
 a DWF file is used. As I understand, this was done to support some
 transformation features avalible in DWF, and it probably plugs into the
 render quite well.

 The DWF format is actually a Zip file with a few magic header bytes added.
 Removing the bytes, makes it possible to read the zip file with standard
 zip tools.

 Inside the zip file there is a dictionary xml file of sorts, that explain
 what items are found in the file. This file is pretty straightforward, and
 can easily be created based on a template.

 For each resource inside the DWF, there is also a descriptor xml file,
 that indicates what images are used, and has transformation, clipping and
 other information. For a simple implementation, this part could be fixed
 to some standard values.

 The real problem with this format is the images. They are in a format
 called w2d, and I cannot find a .Net library that is capable of reading
 and writing those files.

 The DWF toolkit is open source (not sure what license it is though), but
 in C++, meaning that there would have to be a port avalible for all
 possible platforms. This price is a bit too step for this single feature.

 If anyone wants to look into w2d or the DWF stuff, here are some pointers
 from Traian:
 http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/mapguide-internals/2009-May/003870.html

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://trac.osgeo.org/mapguide/ticket/561#comment:3>
MapGuide Open Source <http://mapguide.osgeo.org/>
MapGuide Open Source Internals